Building Visual Basic .NET Applications

Abstract

Visual Basic .NET is one of many languages hosted by Visual Studio .NET (VS .NET). Unlike previous editions of Microsoft IDEs (Integrated Development Environments), VS .NET provides a common GUI shell that spans across languages. In this chapter, you get a grand tour of the key features of VS .NET IDE, and learn about common configuration options, as well as core design time tools. The chapter opens with an examination of the VB .NET compiler: vbc.exe, wraps up with a discussion of the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace, and addresses the issue of VB 6.0/Visual Basic .NET compatibility.